Full throttle on his schedule, Kyle Busch wins two more

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[April 05, 2016]  The Sports Xchange
 
 By Jonathan Ingram, The Sports Xchange
 
 By sweeping two races at Martinsville Speedway, Kyle Busch answered his critics following those controversial remarks made during a race weekend in Fontana, Calif., two weeks ago.

Busch left behind criticism that helped earn him a $10,000 fine for saying that NASCAR fixes races after an Xfinity Series event before the Easter break.

In Martinsville, Busch actually scored three firsts. He earned his first career victory at the famed Virginia short track when he won the Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday. His dominant performance in Sunday's race gave him his first Sprint Cup victory on the 0.526-mile track. And it was a first victory of the season for Busch, which puts him into position to defend his Sprint Cup championship in this year's Chase.

Afterward, Busch defended his penchant for running races in NASCAR's junior series.

"I'd say it certainly helps when you get to run other divisions and that's why I do it, to pay off on Sundays," said Busch, referring to the Truck Series race on Saturday. "It doesn't work every single weekend, but it works more times than it doesn't, so can't say enough about everyone at KBM (Kyle Busch Motorsports) for giving me a great piece (Saturday) to help me learn, teach me some more things about Martinsville that I didn't already know in 30 other prior starts."

But perhaps the most important element for Busch has been the assistance of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, an acknowledged master at Martinsville who says he's an open book when talking to his teammates.
 


On Friday, Hamlin actually predicted a Truck Series win for Busch and suggested he would be a strong contender on Sunday to win one of the grandfather clocks that Martinsville winners receive. It was only a matter of time.

"I'd say he (Busch) has a pretty good chance on Saturday," Hamlin said Friday. "But he's been in position at times on Sundays, but for whatever reason it just hasn't happened. There's many tracks like that for me. He's won a few more races than I have in my career, but there are tracks where I've run extremely strong and just haven't won at. I'm an open book really to anyone that wants to chat and as long as I'm not racing against them if they're not my teammate that is. He's good and he's a great short track racer. He runs Late Models all over the place and wins a lot of races. He'll have his clock sooner or later."

In the end, Busch took home two. On Sunday, he led 352 laps in his 22nd start at Martinsville. Not since the late Bobby Hamilton led 378 laps in 1998 -- six years before Busch began his Sprint Cup career -- has a driver been so dominant on the track where tight corners and traffic usually produce a lot of passing opportunities. It was Busch's 35th career Sprint Cup victory.

Conditions helped Busch, because cool weather and a strong breeze helped prevent much rubber from being put down in the groove. Despite the day's sunshine, the track did not change and get slippery, meaning crew chiefs didn't have to chase the track by changing set-ups. That combined with Busch taking his lessons from Hamlin made for a dominant day. Ironically, Hamlin hit the wall after over-cooking his braking and did not finish.

Just as he is impetuous with his criticism of NASCAR, Busch is pedal-to-the-metal behind the wheel. That's why it took him so long to win in the tight confines of Martinsville.

"You know, I always probably try to overdrive this place a lot," Busch said. "I feel like over the last few years, I definitely honed in on some things that helped me and some techniques that helped me, and obviously having great teammates like Denny Hamlin over the years, I've gotten a lot better. When I joined Joe Gibbs Racing, I was still hit or miss. I wasn't very good. But then once I was really able to lean on Denny a lot and learn from Denny a lot, that helped me."

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Busch is not interested in slowing down his extracurricular racing, despite the criticism about Sprint Cup teams combining with veteran drivers to win so often in the Xfinity Series. Racing as often as possible, which includes Super Late Model events, is just what Busch does and apparently he doesn't care if it irritates others who see him as beating up on up-and-coming drivers with less experience. His remark about NASCAR fixing races likely had its origins in criticism that his winning ways hurt the "stepping stone" series like Xfinity.

When NASCAR decided not to throw a yellow flag that would have handed him victory in Fontana, Busch took exception. Martinsville was a different story.

Busch has now won 45 races in the Truck series in addition to 79 Xfinity Series wins, all by the age of 30. His goal, he said, is to win on not just every Sprint Cup track but every track where he has entered a race in each of NASCAR's three major touring series.

"I've concluded being able to win at all the active tracks that I've made a start in the Truck Series," said Busch, who will turn 31 on May 2. "I believe that's right. And then I've got Watkins Glen left on the Xfinity side, and I've got I think three, Kansas, Pocono and somewhere -- Charlotte (in the Sprint Cup).

"So it's a pretty good problem to have. There's not very many left on the list, but we've certainly put some emphasis on that over the past few years and being able to try to do that last year was a big year for us, knocking off a couple of those, as well. I'm pumped when I'm able to do that. I don't know that many guys have ever been able to accomplish being able to win at every single active track that they've made starts at, and I look forward to trying to complete that feat."

To be specific, six-time champion Jimmie Johnson and three-time champ Tony Stewart are among the active drivers who have not won on every Sprint Cup track. Retired four-time champion Jeff Gordon hung up his helmet without a victory at Kentucky, which was added to the schedule in 2011.
 


The tough part about Martinsville is modulating the throttle, said Busch, who likes a hammer-down style.

"The biggest thing about Martinsville is the amount of off throttle time that you have here is greater than the amount of time on throttle that you have here," he said. "So being able to put together lift techniques and braking techniques and how to utilize the speed of the car without trying to go fast. You're trying to go fast, but you're trying to do it while slowing down. That's probably one of the biggest things. I've never been very good at slowing down."

A look at Busch's busy schedule also confirms he's not very good at taking things slowly.

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